July 2004

In what appears to be a sponsored post, a short article published on Wired UK presents an interesting scene in which semi-autonomous robots protect undersea internet cables from harm—that is, "dexterous robots toil at the bottom of the sea to safeguard the web."

As the CEO of a company called Global Marine Systems explains, submarine cables "the width of a human hair" support 95% of the world's internet traffic. Thus, "to cope with the demand for cable repairs," the company has "invested in a number of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) at our facility in Portland, Dorset." They continue:

ROVs act like underwater robots, and are used to locate cable breaks on the seabed... and repair them. Once the ROV is lowered into the sea, a pilot on board one of our cable ships controls it to find the fault location and fix it.

The idea that little machine-guardians at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, like mechanical demiurges on the invisible edge of the world, are at least partially responsible for ensuring that this post can be read in Europe is a comforting thought before bed.

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Anonymous said...

BTDT:

Check out the 1970's eco sci/fi flick Silent Running, where Bruce Dern first programs Huey, Duey, and Louie to perform surgery on him and then to tend the trees while Joan Baez caterwauls in the background.

I'd like to think (andthe sooner the better!)of a cybernetic meadowwhere mammals and computerslive together in mutuallyprogramming harmonylike pure watertouching clear sky.

I like to think (right now, please!)of a cybernetic forestfilled with pines and electronicswhere deer stroll peacefullypast computersas if they were flowerswith spinning blossoms.

I like to think (it has to be!)of a cybernetic ecologywhere we are free of our laborsand joined back to nature,returned to our mammal brothers and sisters,and all watched overby machines of loving grace.

Reprinted in The Pill versus The Springhill MineDisaster, copyright 1968 by Richard Brautigan.

"submarine cables "the width of a human hair" support 95% of the world's internet traffic"

I think that's nonsense. There may be copper strands deep within cables that are almost that thin, but that has no bearing on what a submarine cable is, or how and why it has to be reparired. Submarine cables are big fat solid cables ...

Anonymous (@ Feb 28, 12:08 AM), somewhat relatedly (though only tangentially), there's also a great line in a recent Luc Sante book: "It will be a better thing all around when bioengineering has refined the landscape so that people no longer need to coax proper behavior from its component parts. Someday you will be able to unscrew your trees, rotate your hedges, and shampoo your lawn." Not quite the same as machines of loving grace, on the other hand...

Ivan, I believe that reference is to the individual copper or fiber optic strands found within the otherwise rather massive cable, which you rightly point out is quite hefty.

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